Max Chebotarev
Chairman
EuroCloud Russia
Max sera l’un des conférenciers des Etats Généraux du Cloud Computing, dans deux jours. Il a bien voulu nous accorder cette courte interview.
What is you company doing?
Internet Intiatives Development Fund (IIDF) is one of the largest Venture capital funds in Russia which invests from 30 K€ to 4 M€. Total amount of IIDF is 150 M€. One of the priorities of IIDF is financial and expert support to startups in their early development stages. We’ve already invested in more than 60 companies on the russian market and I’m responsible for Investor relations with early stages VC funds and business angels.
How would you describe the development of the Cloud industry in Russia ?
Cloud industry in Russia is changing. In 2009, when Cloud market was just beginning everybody had very high expectations – big profits, new customers and growing market. A lot of US vendors launched official operations in Russia – Google Apps for Business, Microsoft Office 365 , Amazon AWS. A whole range of Russian cloud-startups were launched 2009. In 2014 the reality is quite different – cloud solutions (primarily e-mail, security, IaaS) are popular, but Cloud can’t be considered as whole new industry. Businesses are ready to use Cloud products but Cloud is more an opportunity for upsale and crossale.
What are the opportunities in Russia for French Cloud companies ?
The main problem for US-based Cloud providers is some big differences between US and Russian market. In Russia it’s necessary to provide printed contract from Russian-based subsidiary, sales and support should be in Russian language. From my point of view, French companies can be very successful on the Russian market if they perform governmental regulations and will be able to build sales funnel on Russian market. I’m deeply sure that French companies and Russian companies have very close mentality and it’s possible to build very successful operations on the Russian market.
Do you expect any business consequence from the bad opinion among west people regarding the Russian policy in Ukraina ?
Right now no. The Russian market is still very big for such companies like Microsoft, Google, Amazon, SAP and others. Foreign companies are not ready to close their business in Russia. I hope that the political situation will improve in near future.